Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-03-02

N
J strange things happened in this Fifth
avenue mansion. Mrs. Smith, who was
the first one annoyed by them, delayed for
} some time telling her husband what she
had heard. She liked the house, the rent
was unusually low, considering its position,
and she was loath to annoy him about
what she tried to make herself believe
i COULD READILY BE EXPLAINED.
She discovered, however, that, for some
unknown. cause, the servants, one after
another, became dissatisfied and showed a
disposition to quit at short notice. No
| amount of kindness, of considerate treat
ment. served to make them happy and con-
tented. tY.
One night when the lady and her hus-
band were preparing to retire the sounds
of many footsteps were heard in the spare
rooms on the third floor just over her head.
She knew that none of her family were
/ there. for these rooms had not vet been
furnished. 1T could not be the servants,
for the lady had just come from below
stairs, where she bad seen them finishing
up their work, and as the door of her
chamber, which almost faced the stairway,
was open, she would have noticed them
had they passed. So she called to her hus-
band, and he, thoroughly aroused by what
| had transpired in the house, made dash
for the rooms whence the noises proceeded,
determined to clear up the mystery. He
bolted into the apartments, he searched the
closets, the hallway, and even thrust his
arm up the chimneys of the fireplaces. He
saw no one he heard no one.
A few nights afterward there was a still
more uncanny occurrence. Husband and
wife and young lady, temporarily So
ljourning with them, sat by the open fire.
place of their sitting-room on the second
floor The rain battered fitfully against
the windows, and the shadows of night,
disturbed by the flickeripg gas-lights in the
street, wandered into the dimly-lighted
apartment, for the gas was turned down,
and threw various uncouth figures upon the
wall. "What is that ?" suddenly excaim-
ed the wife. and she started up and locked
in the direction of the stairway, the land
| ing of which, as said before, being Just
outside the door of this room. All listened
Sure enough, there was a distinct sound of
people coming slowly up the stairway
They stepped heavily, as if carrying some
burden between them, and the
\
and the swish-swish of women's clothing
along the banisters was distinct. Mr..
Smith made leap for the door, and the
two wemen put their hands up to their
heads in fright. There was nothing to be
seen on the stairway, and, as the man
stood upon the landing and looked down,
there was not sound to be heard, tine
silence being almost oppressive. But no
Loo h< Al l.
than the sounds began again, the process
sion up the stairway continued its solemn
way. carrying its burden, and the stairs
creaked and the swish of female garments
was once more audible. This was too
much for the Smith family, and they were
| fully resolved to leave the house at an early
day.
| But poor Mrs. Smith was destined to re-
ceive worse fright. Her husband being
called out of town on business, she locked
and bolted the doors of the apartment in
which herself and children slept, and des-
perately determined to close her ears to the
uncouth noises that nightly proceeded from
the stairway and the hall. She was awak-
ened in the middle of the night by the
| tramping of people with measured step in
| the room directly overhead. They seemed
to be carrying some heavy body into the
room, which they let down with tbsld
upon the floor, and the groans which came
down the chimney were grewseme and dis
| tressing. The poor woman was horror
struck. She lay awake, as she afterwards
described her condition to a friend, like
one in trance, with wide-open eyes star
| ing into the inky darkness of her apart
ment, unable to move limb, and fearing
to turn her eyes either to the right or left
| lest she should see some terrible FORM
| While she was in this state she heard the
screams of her two children in the adjoin-
| ing room, and at the same time felt her
bed swaying from side to side. With a
! frantic effort she leaped from her bed and
| flew to their assistance. Some one, they
| said, had pulled the bedclothes off of them;
and sure enough, the coverings of the two
little cots lay piled upon the floor. She
| lighted the gas and examined
THE locks AND BOLTS
of the doors in both chambers. They were
undisturbed. Pacing up and down, she
awaited the coming of day, resolved not to
pass another night in the house, a resolve
that was the more firmly established when
| the servants appeared with blanched faces
and their hats on, to tell her they wouldn't
remain longer under the roof for love or
money.
Mr.. Smith, on his arrival in the after
noon, hearing of the occurrences of the
| preceding night, was Indignant rather than
alarmed. A hard-working man is Mr..
Smith, matter-of- fact man, and no imagi-
nation. He took his wife and children to
a neighbor's house, but determined him
self to see the thing out. Describing the
situation to couple of friends, the three
men, armed with revolvers, distributed
themselves over the house and awaited a
recurrence of the previous nights enter
tainment. When they were about tired of
keeping fruitless vigil and read, to lie
Down and go to sleep, the gas, which they
had kept lighted, suddenly went ont,
groans were heard on the stairway, and
when they opened their doors to try and
discover the origin, they encountered
fierce gust of wind that almost took their
breath away. Going down stairs together
they found all the doors and windows
closed and nothing whatever to indicate
the presence of intruders. Then they
searched the house from cellar to garret
without avail. But no sooner did they try
| to go to sleep than the noises began again,
and when morning came Mr. Smith made
up his mind to give up the house, for
while, as he said, he didn't believe in
ghosts and was sure there was nothing
supernatural about the manifestations, the
fact remained that the house was filled at
night with all kinds of uncanny and rest
disturbing noises, and SO it was just as bad
as if it were really haunted.
| A few days later the neighbors saw the
effects of the Smith family carried out of
the Fifth-avenue mansion and carted away.
------->-s-~------
Keen sweet vour breath-if maid or wife
| Or old or young, or large or small,
If you have any hope In life
| Ifyou have any friends at all.
Keep sweet your breath-and heed the warn
| ing
Use SozODONT each night and morning!
Like the Perfume Waited
from beds of flowers is the breath that has
been rendered agreeably odorous with So
| lZODONT, which communicates to the
tooth n, rhle xUhitapacc and TO tho our,ne